I was looking forward to a period of that sort of travel where you have no commitments for a while and no solid plan, and you can just go with the wind. But then I was offered a house sit in Melbourne that I couldn’t refuse. It felt weird that I’d been in Australia all this time and hadn’t yet seen Melbourne so the opportunity to stay for free and look after a Cavoodle puppy was too good.
So the time had come to devise a plan on how I was going to get there. I was determined not to fly, as overland desert travel had been my whole reason for coming to Alice in the first place, so I started looking for a lift.
So the time had come to devise a plan on how I was going to get there. I was determined not to fly, as overland desert travel had been my whole reason for coming to Alice in the first place, so I started looking for a lift.
I found a German girl on Gumtree who wanted to do the same thing…so we teamed up and within a few days we’d found a campervan relocation…all the way to Melbourne with the petrol paid!
So Franzi and I picked up our van and decided to have a starting point photo at Anzac Hill in Alice Springs. It was Remembrance Day too, a coincidence which I hadn’t realised until we were up there. By the time we had packed up it was gone 11am…a bit later than we’d hoped…and after driving on the Stuart Highway until sunset we ended up at Pootnoura rest area, 76kms north of Coober Pedy, for which we’d been aiming.
So Franzi and I picked up our van and decided to have a starting point photo at Anzac Hill in Alice Springs. It was Remembrance Day too, a coincidence which I hadn’t realised until we were up there. By the time we had packed up it was gone 11am…a bit later than we’d hoped…and after driving on the Stuart Highway until sunset we ended up at Pootnoura rest area, 76kms north of Coober Pedy, for which we’d been aiming.
It was a bit sparse on the old facilities. There was emergency water and a phone and some signs and some picnic tables. No toilet…just the good old ‘bush toilet’ which gets a bit tricky when another two vans turn up…as they did! Cracking sunset though….
The next morning we made it to the mining town of Coober Pedy where many people live, and of course work, underground. The landscape on the approach is like the moon. This is where they mine for opal, but it’s so remote that they didn’t get television until 1980.
We arrived before much was open but entertained ourselves by nosing around an underground church until such times that we could visit the museum.
We arrived before much was open but entertained ourselves by nosing around an underground church until such times that we could visit the museum.
We drove on, and for anyone who thinks the flat old desert might be boring, think again. Where else do you see scores of dead kangaroos (I inspected one of the corpses, as instructed by Brolga, but it was a boy kangaroo…so no pet joey for me), camels in a lorry, tumbleweed, mirages that make it constantly look like you’re driving into flood water, huge skies and then….a massive salt lake?!
That day we were aiming for Adelaide, but again drove until sunset - as we weren’t permitted to drive in the dark – and we were still 200kms north of the city. We stopped at a place called Redhill where we stayed in yet another toiletless ‘camp site’ the solution to which was to avail ourselves of the services of the local pub. I repaid them for their kind offer of a shower by drinking more than my fair share while Franzi dried her hair....
The next day, on and on we drove, through Adelaide, and finally into Victoria. I’d been noticing rather an amusing safe driving campaign…the type of which you could only find in Australia. And there’s another sign that’s extremely commonplace in this country…
We stopped that night in the Grampians National Park. We don’t have any decent pictures because it was absolutely tipping it down, shrouded in fog, and we were cutting it fine on the old ‘driving during daylight rule’ so we sat in silence as Franzi negotiated some pretty hairy hairpin bends while both of us willed a campsite to appear. It didn’t, so we ended up at a town called Hall’s Gap and paid for the privilege of a toilet and shower, which I have to say, I wasn’t too disappointed about!
And the next day, after I had my own hairy negotiations through Melbourne city centre, with it’s bloody trams, we finally made it. 2351.3kms on the clock, and absolutely knackered! And it was straight back to reality…no more campervan…on the advice of a local taxi driver we used trollies to transport our stuff to the nearest tram stop, and we headed into the city. A somewhat startling experience after all that nothingness.
And the next day, after I had my own hairy negotiations through Melbourne city centre, with it’s bloody trams, we finally made it. 2351.3kms on the clock, and absolutely knackered! And it was straight back to reality…no more campervan…on the advice of a local taxi driver we used trollies to transport our stuff to the nearest tram stop, and we headed into the city. A somewhat startling experience after all that nothingness.
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